According to Reizniece-Ozola, losing the Russian market Latvian businessmen were forced to look for ways to diversify the business.

"I am glad that our companies are much better prepared for such type of crisis as sanctions, managed to refocus their activity on other, perhaps exotic markets that previously they did not consider due to lack of motivation. In general last year the volume of our exports increased by 3%," she said.

The European Union introduced sanctions against Russia in 2014 in connection with the events in Ukraine and has repeatedly expanded and extended them. In return, Russia banned imports of fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat products. Latvia’s Ministry of Economics earlier said that EU sanctions against Russia and the Russian response measures damaged the economy of Latvia for €70 million, or 0.25% of the GDP.